How a child bride escaped Afghanistan and became a bodybuilding champion

She left Afghanistan as a teenage mother. Now bodybuuilding champion Roya Karimi has a message for the Taliban.

LONDON — Onstage, wearing a small, sparkling bikini, Roya Karimi projects an image of strength as her tanned, well-defined muscles glisten under the bright lights and she shows off the result of countless hours in the gym.

But her physical prowess is matched by her mental fortitude and a steely determination to both represent and help women in her home country of Afghanistan, where Taliban leaders have barred education for girls beyond the sixth grade, banned most employment for women and have prohibited them from many public spaces.

Inviting her detractors to “go to hell,” Karimi, 30, urged other women in her homeland not to give up.

“We are born free, and when somebody takes your freedom, I know the pain,” she said. “You never choose where you will be born. You never choose your religion,” she added, insisting that her heart was with Afghan women and girls “that have the same pain as I had before.”

Add NBC News to GoogleAfghan woman, once a child bride, becomes top-ranked bodybuilder03:17While the Taliban was not in power for most of her childhood, having been ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in October 2001, many still abided by a strict interpretation of Islamic or Sharia law promoted by the group.